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OPINION

Seven lessons from Ferguson

1. We need body cameras on police officers. When an officer shoots someone, the only way to really know what happened is with an audio and video recording. We need to equip our police officers with body cameras as soon as possible.

2. Some members of the black community need to learn that violence is counterproductive. We live in a free society. We have free speech, freedom of assembly and the freedom to seek redress of grievances. When these freedoms are abused and are used as cover for looting, destruction of innocent property and violence, the message is lost. Violence begets violence. Most of us know it, but the lesson must be relearned until it is a core value.

3. We need to reexamine police procedures when it comes to use of deadly force. A useful study would be an examination of 1,000 violent episodes between police and civilians. How can we do better? What changes can we make to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and police? When should police charge in and when should they back away? Does police training rely too much on the use of firearms? How can we increase the use of pepper spray, beanbag rounds and Tasers instead of a firearm? How can we train police to call for backup and wait for backup in high risk situations?

4. How can we train civilians to reduce their risk of encounters with police? Should we address this in the high schools? Do we need public service announcements? We know that there is a lack of respect and trust between the community and police. How can we increase respect and trust?

5. Predominantly white police forces in predominantly minority communities are a major contributing factor to bad relations between the police and the community. How can we encourage local police forces to reflect the community? How can we encourage more minorities to enter the law enforcement profession? How can we encourage more minorities to progress to positions of leadership in law enforcement? How can we improve police-community relations?

6. Chronic poverty and hopelessness are key ingredients to civil unrest. How can we increase opportunities for the poor, expand the middle class and reduce dependency?

7. It is a conflict of interest for local police agencies and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute officer involved shootings. Officer-involved shootings need to be investigated and prosecuted by independent agencies such as the State Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department.